Red for Love, Red for Blood, Red for Death
by coffee-ink-fire
Summary: Jessie never wanted to be affiliated with the Sons. But when everything she holds dear is threatened, she finds herself with no choice, and she soon comes to realise that the more she tries to pull away from them, the more her life starts to crumble.
1. Chapter 1

**Red for Love, Red for Blood, Red for Death**

Chapter 1 – Whitewash Walls

ŜŏĄ

**Disclaimer:** You know the drill; Sons of Anarchy is copyrighted, and not by me.

**Warnings:** F-bombs, mature themes, the intense sexiness that is Chibs.

**A/N:** I enjoy the occasional review (hint, hint)

ŜŏĄ

Jessie woke with a start. There was a familiar soreness between her legs that told her she'd had a good night. And _had _she. Even the throbbing in her head seemed insignificant as it pounded away like a hammer on a nail. The man next to her – Chibs, was it? – lightly snored away, his brown hair sticking up all over the place. He was facing away from her, but she could still remember the distinct features on his face that had caught her attention; the scars running down either side of his cheek.

She'd been curious about it; how did he get them? Had it been an accident, or was he the dangerous sort? The cut that Jessie hadn't noticed until after suggested the latter. Sons of Anarchy; Redwood Original. She should have guessed, being at a SoA party.

But, dangerous as he might be, he still had to him the sort of politeness that was hard to find in a person; he had the air of an outlaw, the stature of a criminal, and yet he didn't talk down to her. Sure, he'd seduced her, but not the a 'you're a piece of ass' kind of way, that suggested he'd move on to the next woman if she refused; it had been more subtle, as though he'd been genuinely interested in her. Not the way he'd spoken to any of the other women around, none of whom looked as lost as Jessie had.

Of course, genuine interest didn't matter so much after the fifth drink, didn't seem as important as figuring out who lived closer. Jessie had won that one, and not long after that they'd found themselves stumbling back to her house, collapsing onto her bed in a tangle of limbs and clothes and sheets, as he burned kisses all over her body. He knew what he was doing, without a doubt, was definitely the kind of man who'd done it a thousand times before as he buried himself inside her, holding her hips still so he could ram her again.

Yes, Jessie had had a good night, but now it was time to get up, find her cigarettes, and have a coffee.

Sitting up, she stretched, loosening the knots in her shoulders and, checking to make sure he was still asleep, got out of bed. She threw on a pair of knickers and a t-shirt. The shirt hung off one of her shoulders as she searched for her smokes. They were in her handbag, on the bench.

Whipping one out, she lit it and took a drag, letting the smoke fill her lungs, burning them, before exhaling. It was a horrible, disgusting habit. Jessie dreaded the thought of her mother catching her with a smoke dangling from her lips.

She busied herself with making a coffee – another one of her vices – and curled in a chair. Mandy was supposed to be around at some point, to drop off some money; she'd been short again, and needed milk for her kids.

Jessie sighed. It was Sunday, which meant work tomorrow. She worked as a manager at the Florent and Thyme Cafe, which wasn't much of a career – anyone who said otherwise was lying – but it paid her bills, and she enjoyed it. Her mother and father had started the business back in their day.

Jessie took another puff on her smoke as the front door burst open, and Mandy clambered in, as loudly as was humanly possible.

"Please, come in," Jessie said. "No need to knock; the door's open."

Mandy raised an eyebrow. "I'm your sister, I don't need to knock." She closed the door behind her, an expression on her face that Jessie didn't like the look of. "Listen, I was wondering if... oh. Hello."

Jessie turned her head. Chibs was standing in the doorway, his mouth slightly open as though he was about to ask a question. He'd thrown on his trousers and a shirt.

There was an awkward silence before Jessie spoke up. "The bathroom's over there," she told him, pointing. "Towels in the cupboard."

Without a word, Chibs nodded, and disappeared into the bathroom. Mandy stared after him, her eyes slightly narrowed. When the door was closed behind him, she rounded on Jessie.

"Who is he?"

Jessie shrugged. "Met him last night."

"Jesus Christ, Jessie. He's like twice as old as you!"

Now _that _was a fair bit of exaggeration. "Oh, no he's not. He's like thirty."

In all honesty, Jessie wasn't quite sure of his age. He _looked _to be about thirty, give or take a few years. She was twenty-four. That was only around six years difference. There was nothing so wrong with that.

"And since when did you pick up guys? That's not you."

"So what? Why do you care?" Jessie drained the last of her coffee, and stood to take the mug to the sink.

"You don't know who he is, where he's been. He could've killed you or given you some disease; I bet you didn't even use protection."

"If it's so important to you, we did," Jessie lied.

She had intended to use a condom, to the point of actually going to fish one out of the drawer; but he'd distracted her with his lips and his touch, and protection had completely slipped her mind. Besides, she was on the pill, so there was no problem.

Mandy shook her head in disapproval. "You're going to end up like Ashleigh," she said.

Jessie scowled. Ashleigh, the prodigal sister. Gold-digger, angel (in their parent's eyes), crow-eater. In fact, it was probably thanks to Ashleigh that this conversation was being had. Jessie had gone to the party to get back the money she'd loaned Ashleigh (apparently she was the bank of the family). Before she could leave, however, Ashleigh had shoved a drink in her hand and was introducing her to some other half-naked girl as 'the coffee-maker'.

"It's a one-off, Mandy. I went to get my money off Ashleigh, I had a few drinks, and this happened. It's nothing."

Mandy still didn't look convinced, but didn't press the matter. She greatly disapproved of Ashleigh's antics, and of anyone who also partook in them. "Well, anyway; I was... I had to pay off my bills today, and I really hate to ask, but is it alright if I get that money to you next pay?" she asked.

Jessie shrugged. If it was Ashleigh, she would have said no. Would have followed her around until she got her money back, because if Ashleigh didn't pay it on time, she'd 'forget' or insist she _had _paid it. Mandy was good with money, and always paid it back. "It's fine, don't stress."

"Thanks."

"How are the kids, anyway?" It had been a while since Jessie had seen them.

Mandy cringed. "Oh yeah, they're _great_. Jordan's teacher rang me up the other day; apparently he kept calling him a 'slimy old git'. I'm going to kill Ashleigh, she's been teaching both of them to swear."

Jessie held back laughter; it had been her who'd spent an hour training the boy to say it whenever his teacher 'so anyway', because Jordan was complaining he did it a lot. Mandy need not know, however.

"Anyway, I'd better go. Their father's supposed to be bringing them home, soon. _Supposed _to be. Thanks again."

Jessie waved her off, lighting up her second smoke for the morning. Her headache hadn't subsided, nor did it promise to. Groaning, she fetched some asprin, downing it with a glass of water.

Alcohol didn't agree with Jessie, which was why she didn't drink. It caused her to do stupid things like flash a passing car or sleep with someone. Ashleigh insisted it was because she wasn't used to it, and tolerance would come with time, but Jessie didn't really want to be tolerant of it.

Chibs walked out of the bathroom, looking slightly more refreshed.

"Um... coffee?" Jessie offered, because she didn't know what else to say.

Chibs shook his head. "No, thanks."

"Smoke?"

Jessie held out the packet, and Chibs gratefully took one. He took several drags before he said anything else.

"I guess I should be on my way."

"I guess so."

Neither of them moved for a while. Jessie wasn't used to one-night stands, so she didn't really know what to do. Did they part ways, forever? Was he going to ask her to dinner or offer her breakfast? She hoped not; she wasn't interested in a relationship at the moment. Not a serious one, anyway.

Chibs was watching her, and she self-consciously hugged her chest, which caused him to laugh. "I've already seen it all, love; there's no use gettin' shy now." He blew out a mouthful of smoke. "Ye're not a crow-eater, are ye?"

"Well, at least you can tell them difference between me and... _them_."

"Them, huh?"

Jessie smiled sarcastically. "If they're all the same as my sister, then it about sums them up. Although, I can think of better words to sum them up."

"Aye, but they don't like it when ye call 'em whores; tha's why they're crow-eaters. Makes 'em feel better about it."

Jessie personally thought the only thing that would cheer them up was a good pounding up the rear, but she chose to not say as much; it wouldn't do for her to talk about her sister in such ways. Even if it was true. Even if Mandy would agree.

"Who's ye're sister then?"

"Name's Ashleigh. It probably rings a few bells." Ashleigh was always going on about 'the boys', so Jessie could only assume she knew them all personally.

Chibs' face was a beacon of confusion, though.

"Blonde hair?"

He gave her a look. "At least half of 'em have blonde hair, ye'll have to be more specific than tha'."

"Breasts the size of Mount Everest..."

Another look.

"Uh... well she's got a – no, you wouldn't know that."

"Wha'?"

Jessie rolled her eyes. "She's got a birthmark around here." She motioned to just under her left breast.

Chibs' eyes finally widened it realisation, causing Jessie to internally groan.

"You slept with her, didn't you?"

"Oh, yeah," he said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. Then, seeing the look on her face, he added, "She's not as good as ye are, though."

If it was supposed to make Jessie feel better, it didn't. On the contrary, it made her feel worse; if he thought – no, if he _knew _that her sister was, well, a get-around, what did he think of her? It wasn't that Jessie cared what _he _thought about her; she just didn't want it going around that she was a whore.

Chibs cleared his throat. "I should go."

"Yeah."

"Migh' see ye around, then." He, surprisingly, placed a soft kiss on her cheek before he left, thanking her for the smoke as he did, and then he was gone.

ŜŏĄ

"So, what's news for today? What are we all doin' here on a Sunday?"

Tig wasn't too happy to have been dragged away from his Mexican whores for church on a Sunday, and he wasn't the only one. Opie scowled dangerously at everyone, while Piney was practically falling asleep where he sat. Clay puffed violently on a cigar. Bobby's eyebrows were as high up as they could go and Chibs was absentmindedly playing with his beard.

In fact, the only two who looked like they might have any idea what was going on were Jax and Juice. The two looked at each other. Juice spoke first. "Jax and I were in town checking up with that Floyd shit, and we overheard a couple of guys talking about a new housing development and shopping complex going up on the Old Highway."

Jax flicked his smoke over the ashtray to get the ash off the end. "We went and checked it out; the land's for sale."

"I went on the council's site; a James Yard submitted a proposal for both the housing development and the shopping complex last Thursday."

Clay swore. "Has it been approved?"

"Probably not yet," Juice said.

"Why are they submitting the proposal if they don't have the land?" Bobby asked.

"Because if it's approved and they get the land, they can build right away. Don't want to give anyone time to stuff it up for them," Clay spat. He rounded on Juice. "I want you to find out exactly who this guy is by Monday. I want to know everything from his grandmother's social security number to the colour of his shit. Find out who owns the land, and where I can find them."

Juice nodded.

"Jax, Bobby; find out if there're any other areas of interest in real estate. I don't wanna send this off one piece of land to another. And will someone please find out where the council's at with this proposal? I don't care who, I don't care how; just find out. And make sure Floyd's alright." He slammed the mallet down and stalked out of the room to the bar.

Chibs trailed him out, grabbing his own beer. "I'll go check up on Floyd, make sure he's alrigh'."

Someone had recently broken into the barber's shop, completely trashed the place. The police didn't have any leads, and Samcro was no closer. There hadn't been any problems since, but Clay wanted them to make sure the barber was alright, and that he stayed alright. Floyd had been in Charming long before Samcro.

"Yeah, do that. Take Opie and Tig, too. I'll get Juice to check up on the council after he's done that other shit; he knows all that shit about computers."

"You got it." He thumped Clay on the back and went to find the other two.

ŜŏĄ

Mondays were never really busy, not after the mornings. Every morning was hectic, with people rushing to get a coffee before work, but after that is was smooth sailing until lunch.

Jessie spent most of her day chatting to customers, while keeping a close proximity to her phone, in case it rang. She wasn't expecting a call; she was simply hoping for it. But as the day wore on with no call, she was becoming less and less sure. There was always tomorrow, though, or the next day or the next.

Halfway through the day, a man entered the cafe. He didn't order anything, didn't even browse; he went straight to the corner of the cafe and sat down. Jessie, juggling a tray full of dishes, didn't notice him as he walked past. After she'd taken the dishes out back and come out to serve, she did.

His arms and neck were covered in tattoos, and an angry pink scar ran from the top middle of his left eye, all the way down to his chin. The eye that he still had was dark and piercing, and it was watching her.

Jessie's heart skipped a beat as she let out an audible gasp. The pen in her hand clattered on the bench as it slipped from her grasp. She quickly composed herself, apologised to the customer, and finished their order. When she looked back to the corner of the cafe, the man had gone.

"Jessie!"

Jessie located the source of the voice; it was Frank, their pastry chef. He held out the receiver to the store's phone.

"It's fer you. Some guy from a real estate place. Want me to tell him ya busy?" Frank had a strong Boston accent.

Jessie hurried over. "No, I'll take it." She took the phone off him and put it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Miss Florent?"

"Yes, it is."

"Hi, I'm Harry Dixon from Thompson's Real Estate. We..."

Jessie cut him off; she wasn't concerned about anything besides her land. "Has someone placed an offer?"

"Uh... yes; a Mr James Yard. He was quite interested in the land, and he's willing to pay as much as he has to. Of course, we need you both to agree on a price and sign some forms before it's official."

"Oh, of course. Thank you so much; I... should I book an appointment?"

There was a pause on the other end as Jessie could hear the faint turning of pages. "I'm free on Wednesday, one o'clock."

"That sounds great; I'll see you then."

ŜŏĄ


	2. Chapter 2

**Red for Love, Red for Blood, Red for Death**

Chapter 2 – Prodigal

ŜŏĄ

Thank you to all of my reviews so far!

ŜŏĄ

"So, what do we have?" Clay asked.

He was _not _happy about the whole situation. He's spent so much of his life keeping shit like this from happening in Charming, but it still managed to slip through his fingers. It _always _managed to slip through his fingers, and him and the boys would have to take time out of their lives to stop it.

"Well, he's successful, I'll give him that," Juice began, avoiding the glare Clay threw him. The truth was the truth. "He's built or started over twenty housing developments in the past two years. _All _of them are thriving. Both his parents are dead, and his brother, Desmond, is the founder of the Black Death..."

"What, you mean like the disease?" Tig asked, scratching his nose.

"No, I mean like the gang. Police can't tie these two together, but wherever James goes with his developments, the Black Death follows. His last development, up in Stockton, took a while to be approved. I'm guessing one of the councilmen had an issue with it; they found his body a week after Yard resubmitted the proposal. It passed the next day."

"Well the council hasn't made a decision on the proposal yet," Opie said. He took a swig of his beer. "But it's probably gunna pass."

Chibs listened carefully to everyone as he clutched his coffee. If Yard had his brother's gang backing him up, it would make it all that more difficult to stop the development going ahead.

"And the land? Who does it belong to?"

Juice shuffled through his papers. "This woman." He tossed one of them to the middle of the table.

Chibs glanced at it, and nearly fell off his chair as he recalled her small, perky breasts, her smooth thighs and round ass...

"Jessica Florent. Small-business owner."

The boys inspected the picture. "She doesn't really look like the type to go out and buy a huge block of land on the Old Highway," Tig pointed out.

"Inheritance," Juice said with a shrug. "Parents were very well off. The land used to be part of a farm. When mom and dad died, older sister got the holiday condo on Hawaii, and the house in Charming; younger sister got all the money, and Jessica was left with the cafe and several small blocks of land." Juice dished out photographs as he spoke. Two of the sisters – the oldest and youngest – were blonde, and had blue eyes. Jessie did have the same blue eyes, but her hair was as black as lightless cave. She looked nothing like the other two.

Chibs recognised the older woman – he'd run into her at Jessie's – and he recognised Ashleigh. He was a bit irked when he remembered that he'd slept with two of the three – albeit accidentally – so he tried his best to not think about it. He was also trying his best to not sit there and compare the two on their in-bed abilities, but it was proving difficult.

"Which she's now about to sell to Yard."

"I checked with the real estate agents; someone's placed an offer. Wouldn't tell me who, but they did say it'll be finalised Wednesday if no one else offers beforehand."

"God damnit!" Clay yelled, banging his fist on the table.

Tig reached over the table, grabbing the photo of Ashleigh. "She looks familiar."

"That's because she is," Chibs told him. "She's one of our crow-eaters."

There was a general murmur of agreement. "Oh, yeah," Bobby said. "Yeah, I know her."

"Well this should be easy then," Jax said. "We get a message to her, and she can..."

Chibs cut him off. "She migh' be a crow-eater, but her sister's not."

He was basing his reasoning off what he'd seen of her yesterday morning. Jessie wasn't a crow-eater, nor would she ever be. It was a hell of a lot more likely she'd become an old lady than a crow-eater. A simple 'we need you to do it for the club', wasn't going to work.

"Then we find this girl, persuade her to see things our way," Tig suggested.

"You mean threaten her?" Piney asked.

"Well... no. Just hint that her precious little cafe might go up in flames if she sells this land to the guy."

"Oh, even better; you want to blackmail her."

"What if someone's already blackmailing her?" Juice piped up. They all looked at him. "I just told you what happened to the last guy who had anything to say about Yard's developments. Let's say we do this; we blackmail her to keep the property, so she does. And the next week police find her body in a ditch off 44. That'll blow right back on club."

"No, no it won't," Tig insisted.

Clay sighed, rubbing his palms against his eyes. "As much as it pains me to say it; Juice is right. Cops know the sons aren't too keen on expanding. Now if the girl who's planning to sell her land to this guy dies before the deal is sealed, who do you think they'll suspect? Either way, it's our fault."

Tig sighed, annoyed that his ideas had been rejected. "So, what do we do?"

"How 'bout we just talk to her, see where she stands. Then we can figure out our next move," Jax suggested. "Worst comes to worst, we'll just make an offer that's one up from Yard's."

ŜŏĄ

Jessie's day had been going well – well enough that she convinced herself it would pass without incident. Her days rarely passed without incident anymore, though, so it was no surprise to her when the cafe door tingled open, and several men dressed in SoA cuts walked in. There was only one she recognised – Chibs – and he had a tired look on his face.

"You Jessica Florent?" the one at the front asked. "I'm Clay Morrow."

"Can I help you guys?" Her gaze strayed to Chibs, and she narrowed her eyes slightly; what had he told them?

"We, uh, we heard you've got some land up for sale."

Jessie baulked. That was what it was? They'd come all this way to ask about her land? "Are you making an offer?"

"No."

"Then what do you want?" Jessie asked, raising an eyebrow.

Clay shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm guessing you're pretty wrapped about the offer that James Yard made. If it was me getting the money, I would be to. But the thing is, we need you to reject his offer."

It took a moment for Jessie to actually comprehend the meaning of his words. Here he was, all high and mighty, telling her to turn down a few hundred thousand, and keep the shitty piece of land. No. She didn't think so. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't. Besides, who she sold _her _land to was none of their business.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

Jessie let out a harsh laugh. "Okay, fine. I won't sell it. Are you gunna pay my bills? Keep my business up and running?"

"I don't think you entirely understand the complexity of this situation. The guy that wants to buy your land plans on putting in a housing development and a shopping complex. We can't let that happen."

Scoffing, Jessie looked from one man to another, but they each had the same, deathly serious expression, as though more houses in Charming was nothing short of a catastrophe. Chibs stared evenly at her. "Oh no, that's terrible." She let the sarcasm drip from her words.

"Yeah, it is," one of the others piped up. He had a crazy look about him, prompting Jessie to wonder why her sister bothered. These men strutted around the town like they owned it and everyone in it. "That's why you can't sell your land to him."

Jessie folded her arms across her chest. "If you don't want me to sell the land to him, make an offer. You've got until Wednesday."

It was them who didn't understand. She _had _to sell it. She _had _to get that money. It was the only thing keeping her and her business safe. They might think they own the town, but more than one thing happens without their knowledge.

Shaking his head, Clay said, "You sure you won't reconsider?"

"I'm sure. Sorry but, I need that money."

Defeated, Clay signalled to the others, and they left. Chibs lingered, as though he might have wanted to say something, but he left without a word.

Jessie wasn't fool enough to believe that was the end of it; she knew about the sons, everyone did, but she wouldn't – _couldn't _– give in. The reinforcement of that fact came in the form of a phone call.

"That's some dangerous company there, girl."

A quick glance out the window spotted a sleek black car on the opposite side of the road. The tinted windows were rolled up, but she knew who was in there. How long had they been watching her? A few minutes? Hours? All day? Jessie wouldn't have been surprised if they were following her at this point.

"I didn't ask them here."

"Yeah, well don't you go getting any ideas. I'd hate to see that pretty face of yours end up damaged. You _do _remember our deadline, don't you?"

Jessie ground her teeth. Of course she did. It was rather hard to forget when she kept receiving reminders. "I know; I'll make it."

"Good. You be sure of that. Unless you want to end up in a bed next to your friend."

The line went dead. A moment later, the car on the road rolled out of the parking spot and disappeared down the road.

Sighing, Jessie placed the phone back. She stared at it for a moment, thinking. A thought struck her. She picked it up, and dialled a number. It rang once before there was an answer.

"Hello?"

"Ashleigh? It's me."

ŜŏĄ

"Well, that couldn't have gone worse," Tig said as they got back to the club.

Jessie had been adamant; make a better offer, or get out. Seeing as the club didn't have the funds to satisfy a better offer, they'd left, grumpy and defeated.

"I told ye," Chibs said. "She's not gunna roll over like the rest o' these whores, just because her sister's one of 'em."

"Okay, so we find a weakness, and we build on that. Sooner or later she'll crack and give us what we want."

"She's an innocent, she hasn't done anythin' wrong."

"That bitch is selling a piece of land to a guy who's gunna bring more racist pricks to _our _town!"

Chibs threw his hands up in defeat. Tig would not be made to see sense. He was pissed off that they hadn't gotten what they went there for. Chibs wasn't too happy either, but they couldn't exactly expect everyone to have the same views on expansion as the club did. Jessie probably didn't care that more houses equated to more police. Why would she need to worry about that?

"Yeah, well, let's hope Juice's got some good news for us," Clay told them.

Juice didn't have good news for them. His face was pale, and he was reluctant to speak when Clay asked him about the council's take on it. "The council granted it. As soon as Yard gets the land he can start construction."

Swearing, Clay seized a half-empty beer bottle and pegged it across the room. It smashed on the wall, spraying shards of glass and warm beer. Juice flinched. Even Tig jumped.

"So now what do we do?" Tig asked.

"We've got til Wednesday to think o' somethin'," Chibs pointed out.

"I told you man, we should have gone in there and dealt with it."

Jax, who'd just joined the conversation, shook his head. "We can't just go dealing out threats and blackmailing people, Tig, especially if we don't know how they're going to react."

"Nah, man, I'm talkin' like, we dress ourselves in ski masks and shit, and just give her a little scare, you know? She doesn't have to know it was us," Tig suggested, shrugging. He raised his beer to his lips.

"Oh, yeah, tha' sounds like a great idea. Even better when ye consider we jus' went in there and told her not to sell the land. She'll never know it was us."

Tig glared at Chibs.

Clay waved a hand impatiently. "Stop, stop. We'll figure all that shit out later, alright?"

Tig didn't look too pleased, but he didn't dare speak out. Instead, he grabbed his beer, and sat in a corner with it, grumbling to himself and shooting nasty glares at Chibs every now and then.

Leaving him to his sulking, Chibs challenged Juice to a game of pool. Clay was right; they could worry about it later. For now, it was all about the balls.

Juice, confident that he'd win, slammed some cash on the table. "Best out of three," he said. "Winner takes all."

Chibs dug deep into his pockets. No way was this kid going to beat _him_. He dropped his money on top of Juice's. "Alrigh'. I'll break."

The first round was brutal. Chibs potted four balls on his first go, and was pretty confident by his second turn; Juice only potted one. Unfortunately, he misjudged, accidentally getting one of Juice's in. Encouraged by this, the boy potted a few more, bringing him to the lead. It was in vain, however, because Chibs completely thrashed him.

The Scotsman let out a laugh. "And it's on to round two!"

But Juice wasn't listening. Chibs followed his focus to the door, where a girl had just walked in; Ashleigh. Her blonde hair swayed as she stalked towards him.

"Hi Chibs."

"Hey." He narrowed his eyes. Of all the time she could have picked to seek him out, she picked _now_? What was it with him and bad timing?

Huffing, Ashleigh tugged on the hem of her shirt, exposing her breasts. She gave her hair a flick, ruffled it, and placed her hands on her hips. "My sister's looking you," she told him sniffily, as though she didn't think he should be associating with her sister when he could be associating with her.

Chibs blinked. "Yer sister? Wha', ye mean Jessie?"

If Ashleigh was annoyed that her sister was looking for him, she was crushed that he knew her name. Sullenly, she nodded. "She's waiting outside."

"Thanks."

Chibs handed his cue to a curious Juice, motioned for him to stay there, and headed outside, where Jessie was indeed waiting, leaning against her car and nervously eyeing a group of crow-eaters. Her whole body was tensed up. She didn't relax when she saw him, but her eyes did soften, and she seemed to let out a breath.

"Ashleigh said ye were lookin' for me," he said, pulling out a smoke. He offered one to Jessie, as his eyes strayed down her body, around the curve of her breasts, the dip of her waists, out to her full hips and down her legs. He'd made a good decision that night when he'd decided to sleep with her, even if it was badly timed. She wasn't skinny like most of the crow-eaters; she had a fuller body, one that he could grab onto as he rammed his...

Her voice bought his eyes back her hers; she'd obviously caught him looking. "That's right." She selected a smoke, catching it between her lips as Chibs lit it for her. "Look, I don't know what you lot have got against that housing development, and I don't really care. You don't want me to sell the land to him, fine; I won't."

Chibs' face lit up a little bit, but he still eyed her suspiciously. Was she going soft on him – due to his manly charm, of course – or was there something she wanted? "Ye serious?"

Jessie nodded. "But you have to help me."

"How?" Chibs asked. So it was the latter; she wanted something. He should have figured as much. Everyone wanted something in life. But if she wanted a favour worth a couple hundred thousand, it had to be fairly big.

Jessie took a deep drag on her smoke, filling her lungs, then blew it out. "There's this guy, I don't know if he's part of a gang or anything, but he's going around all the small businesses, offering them protection and shit for a price. You might have had a run in with him. I told him I wouldn't pay. Can't exactly pull the money out of my ass. Now he's threatening me and my business if I don't."

"Let me guess; tha's why ye're sellin' the land."

"He wants a hundred thousand because of the 'trouble' I put him through. Already put one of my staff in hospital. I don't have that kind of money, Chibs, and if I don't find it someone else is going to get hurt. He went round to Floyd's the other week; a few days after that the place is smashed up."

Throwing his smoke butt to the ground, Chibs stubbed it out with his foot. So that was who'd destroyed Floyd's? Some shithead wanting money. "Wha's his name?"

"Aaron Banks. He's got a scar running down his face, missing an eye. Covered in tattoos. Don't ask me where to find him, because I don't know."

"Alrigh', then. We'll get him off yer back, ye don' sell yer land to Yard."

Jessie just nodded. Here she was, making a deal with the devil, because she didn't want to get in bed with the other devil. She justified it by reminding herself that the police couldn't do anything; there was no proof Aaron had attacked anyone. Even if she knew it had been him who'd totalled Floyd's, she couldn't prove it, and neither could the barber. Besides, she could always find someone to buy her land; with Aaron off her back, it wasn't exactly like she needed money.

"I'll be in touch, but he shouldn't be a problem anymore."

Tossing her smoke on the ground, Jessie stubbed it out with her foot. "I'll push back the meeting until next week, tell them I'm having second thoughts. But until I'm sure he's not going to destroy my cafe, the offer's still on the table."

ŜŏĄ


End file.
